Thanks for the feedback Jesse. Glad to hear that everything went well for you!
Since I’ve been back from EVO, I’ve had quite a few orders, especially recently as more people stumble on the thread. So, at least for now, here’s an update (as usual, I updated the OP to reflect):
**I’m currently SOLD OUT of TEasy Mod v1.2 boards, I think based on how fast they went I’ll be putting in for some more PCBs by the end of this week see below.
*I still have some TEasy Mod S v1.0 boards, if you’re in need of those, feel free to inquire!
Instead of going nuts and ordering more boards/parts, I may focus my time and money on putting together TEasy Strike boards instead. I’ll probably start on the design tonight or tomorrow, and depending on how deep I see the design going will be the determining factor in simply ordering more of the current version of TEasy Mod boards. Not sure yet, we’ll see…
Ok, i’ve just tried a TEasy + Dual strike mod and at the moment the stick isn’t being recognised either by the xbox360 or my laptop (tried firmware update). Hard to know which thread this belongs to so i’ll post in both!
My first guess is that i didn’t strip the usb lines enough after cutting them off the madcatz pcb (i actually didn’t cut very close to the pcb so it meant i had to strip back the usb cable itself to get more access the the black/red/white/green lines). There’s a lot of copper coil and white stringy stuff in there too, i guess that’s not needed? I’m going to try to strip the usb lines a but more now.
My second guess is that the TEasy board is not perfectly attached to the madcatz pcb (it was trickier than i thought to attach but it is attached). I’m pretty sure the ribbon cable is attached properly, following purplearms video in the TEasy thread.
Hmm, well first and foremost, try and snap some pictures of the installation, check to make sure you’ve got the usb lines screwed in the right spots Then remove the ribbon cable, so that the only thing connected to the outgoing USB lines is the DS. Try to plug in the USB cable, and see if it’s recognized as the Dual Strike on your laptop (I’m not sure if it’s defaulted as a pass-through or not, you may have to hold a button down for PS3 functionality).
If it shows up as a Dual Strike correctly, then unplug the USB cable, plug the ribbon cable back in, and do this:
Grab a multimeter and check the continuity of the connections between the TEasy and the DS, that will ensure that the ribbon cable is OK. All of the connections are labeled very clearly, so just go down the line and make sure all of the connections are there.
If that checks out, try to re-seat the PCB into the TEasy. I know it’s not the most easy thing to align, but make sure you do it slow and that you’re seating on all the back row of pins before clamshelling it down. Then check the connections between the TE PCB and the DS with the multimeter while the PCB is clipped in.
Thanks for the reply phreakazoid, SRK has been down all day for me but its back up now!
Messed around with it a bit more today and still no luck. I re-stripped the usb cable and attached them to the dual strike (image) although i haven’t done anything with the copper sheilding (what was the thicker black cable). I’ve just wrapped tape around it so it isn’t exposed. Should i do something with this shielding? Looks like bencao74 did something to his?
I also re-attached the TE pcb to the TEasy board (even though i believe it was fine the first time). Here is an image. You can also see in this image that there is still short bits of cable coming from the old usb point on the TE pcb, i didn’t fully remove them, just taped them up so they aren’t exposed. That shouldn’t be a problem?
The TEasy and Dual strike are attached end to end in this way as per purplearms video. Strangely, the ribbon cable i got from bencao74 wouldn’t allow me to connect it like this, i.e. Pin 1 (red) to pin 1 (red). His ribbon cable was somehow flipped! So i’m using the ribbon cable provided with the TEasy board.
Now, here’s the strange thing. Sometimes when i plug it in (to laptop or xbox) i get a brief flash of green light in the xbox logo. And if it is plugged in and i “wiggle” the black (GND) cable from the usb line, I also get brief flashes of green in the xbox logo. Also, sometimes i get a symbol on the bottom right of my laptop that there is a usb device being picked up. Almost like there’s a break in the line or something. I have a feeling that the power is not getting to the Dual strike properly. Is it possible to damage the stock usb cable when running it through the flute like in purplearms video?
Tried the nebula cps3 emulator but it wouldn’t pick anything up (even when i hold a button when pluggin in). Something is not quite right. Unfortunatley i don’t have a multimeter on me (can get one from my brother in a few days). I’m almost certain that i’ve done everything the way i should have (i’ve been following both threads for months!).
The best is to connect it to GND, although it should work as you did it.
Did you isolate them from each other? If not it might be the source of your problems.
Also try to use a fresh USB cable attached to the DS, I had problems with my TE cable after messing around a bit, the hard-cornered cabling in the TEs can make the lines break.
If the problems persist wait for the multimeter or buy one - you can use a cheap one unless you’re doing complicated stuff.
Okay, well based on the shots, it’s entirely possible that the USB wires (outgoing) are not stripped enough, nor tightened down enough. Strip a litte bit more so that the insulation isn’t so far inside of the screw terminal.
The lines that aren’t cut very close to the PCB aren’t a big deal, but I would recommend cutting them closer to the PCB if possible. The shielding cable isn’t a big deal either, I usually leave mine floating, but as Mephisto mentioned, it’s generally a better idea to put that to ground as well. You’ve cut yours already, so don’t worry about it.
You should be okay using the cable I gave you, but that’s where the multimeter helps so that you can check to make sure that VCC/GND/buttons/directions are all connected to each other correctly.
For now though, follow this step as I mentioned before. I want you to isolate the boards, so that only the DS is plugged into the outgoing USB line. I want to make sure you can at least get your DS up and running, we’ll worry about the connection to the other board once this is verified to work.
I’m not sure how I can test the Dual Strike board on its own, there are no screw terminals for the directionals or buttons so even if i did plug it in with only dual strike, i’d have no buttons to press!
However, just after a posted the previous post i tried once again to update the firmware of the dual strike and i think it might have worked. Previously i was getting a “device not found” from the updater, this time it was found and i think it updated and then it said, “telling device to exit bootloader, press any button”. Then i loaded up the configuration editor app but it was unable to load settings to the DS nor was it able to read the settings from the DS. I then look at the corner of my laptop and it looks like the usb signal keeps cutting out ([media=youtube]3RZWtGPTVB4"[/media]).
Tomorrow i’m going to try a brand new usb cable, rip it apart and connect it to see if that’s the problem.
Actually, that photo was taken yesterday before i stripped it again today!
Ok, i’ll try tidying the usb stumps.
Again, i’m not sure how i can test the DS connectivity if i isolate it
The point of isolation isn’t so much to test the buttons/directionals, for now we’re assuming that once the DS is up and running, the rest will be just fine. What we want you do do is basically connect only the USB lines, so that when you plug in your USB cable it should come up as “Dual Strike xxxxx” every time you unplug it and plug it back in (again, make sure it’s not defaulted to be pass-through first, you may have to hold a button down for PS3 functionality). Do this test with the “Game Controllers” menu of the control panel pulled up, that way you know for sure if it’s been detected.
It sounds like it’s just a loose connection of USB wires to the DS, so that’s what we’re trying to work out at the moment, as adding in the TEasy + 360 PCB only complicates the matter and adds variables that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the current issue. At this point, we just want to make sure that your DS connection is good. Once that’s up and running, everything else is cake.
Ok sure. Just tested this now, the usb data lines connected to DS and the DS not connected to anything else. Doesn’t register at all on Game Controllers. Problem is, I have no way of knowing if its in ps3 mode or passthrough mode and i’ve no way of changing mode since there’s no button connected to the DS! I don’t think i’ve changed the mode since i got it so its probably default (which is ps3 mode i think).
A usb symbol did show up on my laptop and when i clicked on it I got this
Newb question here, in order to use TEasy mod, I’d need to install a dual strike or something first right? The TEasy mod alone won’t allow me to use my 360 stick on my ps3?
TEasy doesn’t have any programming in it; it is just a board with lines and pins.
Although Phreakazoid187 did say he thinking of making integrated Dual Strike in TEasy.
Edit: Updated using update_firmware_168 but the same thing is happening. Whenever i plug in it to anything i only get a brief flash of green light on the xbox logo. The configuration editor cannot read or write to the device.
ITS ALIVE!! Working on xbox360 as we speak. Not sure what did it. I had tried a new usb cable but still didn’t work so i reattached the stock usb cable. Then I cleaned up the stumps of old usb cable on the TE pcb and re-seated the TE pcb on the TEasy board. Plugged it in to xbox while holding A and finally it registered. Haven’t plugged it into laptop yet (afraid to!) to test configuration mode. Haven’t tested on ps3 yet either (maybe tomorrow).
Based on the fact that you were able to merely touch the gnd line and cause it to disconnect/reconnect, I really think what was causing the problem was a loose connection to the outgoing USB. That caused glitches in the data stream while updating/plugging in/etc. The first thing to try is simply plugging it into your laptop to see if it comes up in the game controller section as the dual strike, then once again with the button held down to see if it comes up as an xbox stick (should just fine, as long as your drivers are installed).
Once you confirm that it works every time, then try out the configurator. Once you’ve got that all set to what you want, I’d say zip tie the DS down to some anchors and call it a day :tup:
Thanks for all the help. Yeah, it did feel like a dodgy usb connection to me too but i was convinced that i screwed them down safely enough (multiple times!). Will be able to test today on both systems and if all goes well i’ll plug into laptop to try configuration.
How is the new TEasy+DS/Chuthulu board all combined concept coming along? Definitely would love to get my hands on one of those!! Keep up the amazing work Phreak!
I usually lurk these boards but I wanted to leave my feedback for Phreakazoid. (Alex from Toronto, Canada btw)
I ordered a TEasy board a few weeks ago along with a Dual Strike board. I finally got around to installing them in my TE today. The installation process was painless, probably peaking in difficulty at lining up the pins on the TEasy. It requires a little bit of patience but isn’t overly difficult. Connecting the ribbon and re-affixing the USB cable was easy.
About 10 minutes later I’ve got myself a dual modded TE stick that works perfectly on both consoles.
Thanks for the great product Phreakazoid! Looking forward to when you come out with the combination board, I’ll probably order one of those too.
It’s coming along, I’m still trying to do a bit of concept work to see how assembly could be streamlined before I start truly laying everything out. This week’s been super busy with other stuff too, so I haven’t really had much chance to sit down with it otherwise. I’ll keep people posted on the progress.
Good to hear Alex! So far everyone has had a positive experience, meaning this “beta” run was pretty darn successful, so I couldn’t be happier.
With all the feedback being so positive (and the fact that I’m completely out of v1.2 boards) I think I’m going to place an order for more pcbs/parts to build up some more TEasy v1.2 boards, it’ll be another smaller run since I don’t want to overdo it as I’d rather save the bulk of my parts for the combination board prototypes when it’s finished. I should have more boards for sale in a few weeks.
